Meditation on Swami Muktananda’s Words
Siddha Yoga Satsang in Honor of Easter
by Eesha Sardesai
Fulfilling the Body’s Purpose
Upon the conclusion of the saint’s story in Play of Consciousness, Baba Muktananda writes: “If you really understand your body, you will fill it with yoga, love, and meditation.”1 Baba’s statement perfectly encapsulates the point of the story—and, of course, prompts further contemplation. I am especially drawn to Baba’s phrasing here, that we can “fill”the body with yoga, love, and meditation. It suggests that the body is more malleable than we might initially think.
True, we do not come into this world as entirely blank slates. The samskaras I referenced in the previous installment are said to accumulate over lifetimes. Not to mention that in a person’s current lifetime, their body will have its unique set of gifts, proclivities, and limitations. Still, as we’ve explored recently, we each have an infinite capacity to learn, unlearn, and relearn. We have the ability to fashion the body for almost any purpose we see fit. We can, in other words, “fill” it with whatever we choose.
Or with the result of what we don’t choose. The body will take on the color, texture, and flavor of whatever we give to it, whether or not we are deliberate about—or even conscious of—what that is. I’m reminded of the famous saying Nature abhors a vacuum. It’s a saying that Gurumayi has drawn upon in her satsangs, and it distills an idea expressed by the Greek philosopher Aristotle. Certainly it applies to our body in the formative years of childhood and adolescence, when we are constantly absorbing and being molded by all the many influences around us. But it is true in our adulthood as well; our brain, for example, continues to form, strengthen, and prune different synapses based on what we take in from our environment.
So isn’t it best to be as intentional as possible about the environments in which we place our bodies and minds? In his teaching, Baba is definitive. If we make the effort to understand our body, we will treat it well. When Baba speaks here of “understanding the body,” I take it to mean understanding what is made possible for us through this body—the greater purpose the body can serve, the destination toward which the body functions as a vehicle. And that is to know God.
If we really understand this—and I don’t mean just intellectually, but if we actually assimilate this knowledge into our being—then it makes sense that our approach to life would shift accordingly. In the original Hindi of this passage from Play of Consciousness, Baba uses the word purna, attaching it as a suffix to each of the activities he describes us engaging in. Yogapurna, Baba says—our bodies will be “full of” yoga. Premapurna, full of love. Dhyanapurna, full of meditation. Purna denotes fullness, completeness, wholeness, and perfection. It is a term that is often used in the Indian scriptures when describing God, the supreme Self, the Absolute. Each of the activities Baba mentions—the activities we do after understanding the body’s purpose—therefore leads us to God.
Now I’d like to hear from you. What are some of the methods you employ to better understand your body and its purpose? And as one season gives way to the next, how will you continue to breathe in the spirit of spring—to savor the rasa, the flavor, of life as experienced in this human body?
- 1Swami Muktananda, Play of Consciousness: A Spiritual Autobiography, 3rd ed. (S. Fallsburg, NY: SYDA Foundation, 2000), p. 271.
Audio recording by Eesha Sardesai